I feel official today because I received my staging packet from the Peace Corps. This is the last official item I'll receive from them except for my airline ticket. The big surprise is that the staging date is 2 days earlier than I thought. That means I have less than a month to go!!!

On August 13th, I'll fly from home to Washington DC. There, I'll sign in and start the 2-day staging program which will include meeting the other 30+ members of my group. We'll complete forms, play hokey little get-to-know-you-games and prepare for departure. We will fly (together as a group) from DC on August 15th. The plan is DC to Frankfurt, Germany then Frankfurt to Istanbul, Turkey and finally Istanbul to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Hmmm...the layover in Frankfurt is 5 hours. Any of the BMW crowd know how far Frankfurt is from Munich? Maybe I'll see if Andrea Dangl wants to meet me for a bier! If memory serves, the cities are not close. Anyway, I'll leave the States on a Thursday afternoon and arrive in Tashkent on Saturday at 1:30 AM.

Enough procrastinating and back to packing! 27 days and counting...eeek!